Realization
by OrangeFace99
Summary: After the fall of Annabeth and Percy, the Argo II crew is in bad shape. They discover an island and decide to stay there for repairs. But will the island be the only thing they will find out about? Why is Nico bringing a shovel?


**A/N: Yeah, this is a one-shot about Nico **

There they were, on an isolated island, miles and miles and miles from civilization.

The loss of Percy and Annabeth was a huge punch in the gut to everybody on board, especially Nico, who known them longer than anyone else in the ship.

Leo said that he needed to fix the Argo II so that the ship can carry the statue of Athena properly and lessen the risk of any serious damage on the ship. The found an isolated island in the middle of the vast sea and landed there. It was full of wild animals and the trees were blooming with fruits.

Jason and Piper agreed to find things in the nearby woods while Hazel and Frank agreed to help Leo. Nico...he said that he wanted to be alone.

Everybody but Leo saw Nico snatch up a shovel and bottles of Coca-cola from the icebox and left the boat. Leo told Coach Hedge to guard the ship and kill anything that goes near it (which made Hedge accept in a snap)

"I saw him get it! I swear" Leo said to Hazel as they go looking for Jason and Piper.

"Why would Nico bring those things into the woods, anyway?" Frank says.

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking her" Leo points at Hazel.

"Can you guys just shut up and find Jason and Piper silently!" Hazel says.

The continue walking in awkward silence until Frank decides to break it.

"So, Hazel" he says, "how much do you know about Nico?"

She blinks, "I don't know. Not much, probably. I know that he's my brother and he knows Percy and Annabeth longer"

"Do you know how old he is?" Leo asks

"I think about...83, give or take"

The two boys stop, "WHAT?!" they say in unison.

"Yeah, he's about that old. He said to me once that he and his _real sister_, Bianca, stayed at a hotel in Vegas that stops time. They were released decades later, but they haven't aged a bit" Hazel answers.

"Are all child of Hades supposed to be old?" Leo asks

"No Leo. It's probably a coincidence. And I'm a child of _Pluto,_ not Hades"

"What about his age, not counting the years he spent at that hotel" Frank asks

"I...don't know. 16, I think, but he's too short to be 16" Hazel replies

"Although he acts like he's 16..." Leo mutter.

They hear something dig into the ground, and they follow it. They stopped when they saw Nico digging up a hole. Next to him was about 12 cans of Coca-Cola and some raw meat that was still dripping with fresh blood. They crouch and hide behind the thick tree trunks and the shadows. the sunset gives it a gloomy feeling.

"Are those...corpses?" Hazel whispers and points at the dead animal corpses behind Nico. They were skinned and the meat was gone. the innards were in a pile; the hearts, lungs, intestines and other organs soaked with fresh animal blood.

"Can he get more sadistic than that?" a deep voice says behind the three. They turn around and see Piper and Jason, crouching with them.

Piper turned pale when she saw the carcasses and redirected her attention towards Nico, who was opening two cans of Coke.

"Is he going to drink that?" Jason asks.

Instead of gulping it down, Nico pours the Coke into the deep hole that he had dug up.

"What a perfectly good waste of softdrinks" Leo mutters.

Nico says in a commanding voice, "Let the dead taste again. Let them rise and take this offering. Let them remember" he mutters.

"Is he summoning the dead?" Hazel says

"Can you do that?" Frank asks Hazel.

She shooks her head, "No. I got the riches part. Nico got the dead"

Nico continues to pour the remaining Coke to the pit. He then takes a blood-soaked piece of raw meat with his bare hands, the blood dripping between his fingers.

"If only I had Leo here, then I could have just roasted this..." Nico mutters.

"Is he going to eat that?" Leo asked wide-eyed.

"I think I'm going to be sick" Piper mutters. The others nod in approval.

Nico drops the meat in the pit and throws in also the other pieces of meat. He also includes the innards. He chants something in Ancient Greek that not even the Greek demigods can understand.

"What is he chanting about?" Jason asks Piper, who had gone a bit pale and green.

"Something about remembering and graves and deaths" she answers.

"So...he's chanting positive stuff. Sweet" Leo says sarcastically.

Suddenly, bubbles begin to form, filling up the hole to the brim with frothing Coca-cola. The sun has set and filled the woods with the dark night.

"What the Hades!" Leo says.

Suddenly, ghosts appear. The glowed blue against the dark background. The looked vaguely human, but they were rising from the pit.

"He's summoning the dead!" Frank exclaims

"Gee, what was your first clue?" Piper says.

Tons of blue ghosts begin sprouting out from the pit, but Nico held up his hands.

"Serve me. I am the Ghost King. Go back and present yourself if summoned" he protests. The ghosts go back and retreat.

Nico mutters something, then another ghost appears. It was glowing brighter than the others. It leaned down and took a sip from the soda and ate the raw meat. It stood up straighter and they saw that the ghost was a she.

She looked a lot like Nico. Even with the glowing blue color, the 5 can see that she had long black locks similar to Nico. It was braided and it shimmered against her fragile form. She was wearing a silver jacket and shirt.

They quickly realized that the ghost was wearing a Hunter's outfit. She had a green cap on her head, as if she was trying to hide her face. She adjusted the cap so it showed her obsidian eyes.

"Nico" she smiled. Her voice was calm and loving.

"Bianca" Nico fell down to his knees, but he was looking at the ghost.

Hazel gasps, "She's Bianca..."

"Who's Bianca?" Jason asks.

"Nico's older sister. His biological sister" Hazel answers.

"She's beautiful" Piper comments

"Nico, have I already told you-" Bianca says

"No, I just want to talk. Please Bianca" he says. standing up.

"You have grown so much, Nico. You have grown into a strong man. I wish..." she stops herself and reaches over to touch Nico's cheek, but her hand passed through. Nico closed his eyes and leaned towards his sister's touch.

"Bianca, Percy-"

"I know Nico. I have heard from the screams. Our dear cousin is in danger"

"Percy's not our cousin-"

"Yes, I understand that the godly parentage doesn't count, but we are children of the Big three. The threats are greater. Together, you can overcome it. You have to learn to cooperate"

"I _have_ learned. But still, I haven't save them, I didn't..."

"Nico, it wasn't your fault"

"It's mine! If only I didn't go searching for the Doors, they wouldn't be in this mess! They would be in here, talking, being the couple they are. But, no! The are in Tartarus! If only...I had..." he trails off, his eyes getting misty.

"Nico, even if you didn't go searching for the Doors, Percy and Annabeth would still have gone and dropped to Tartarus. It was their fate-"

"Don't you dare talk to them in past tense!" Nico shouts, "Why did they deserve this? They already saved the world, not once , not twice, but more! They have saved countless numbers of people without asking anything in return. They deserved silence and peace."

"Ni-"

"Percy might be too loyal, but at least he kept his promises! He promised to never leave Annabeth ever again, and now they are in Hell together. I never even got the chance to say sorry to all I have done to him. I treated him cruelly, and he still was there for me! The only promise I have seen him broken was keeping you safe and to bring you back at camp alive!"

"Percy promised that?" Frank whispers to the other 4, but they didn't answer.

"I was destined to die, Nico. _One shall be lost in a land without rain_, remember?"

"But why you?" he says, tears falling down his pale cheeks, "Why must it be you?"

Bianca pauses, "I don't know" she answers quietly.

Nico laughs; a sad, broken, crazy, heart-felt laugh, "It's funny though. I have spent 70 years of my life as a ten-year-old but I never got to know the experience because of a hotel. When I finally had a chance to be a normal kid, just 2-3 years ago, a manticore goes and attacks us." he smiles

"But-"

"and then , you get to be a Hunter and I am left at camp. You get to go on your first quest to save Artemis while Percy sneaks out and saves Annabeth. I can't _believe_ I made him promise. When you guys left, I spent almost all of my time worrying about you. I had nightmares, NIGHTMARES, that you were dead. Do you know how scary it was for me, a ten-year-old, to get those kind of nightmares and when you wake up, you find yourself in a cabin-full of people who you barely even know?"

Bianca winces a bit.

"Everyday, after classes, I couldn't wait to show you what I have learned and to share to you what I had known, but when I search for you, I remember you aren't there. I can't see you, or talk to you. You weren't there. I tried the thing that they call Iris-messaging, but I can't do it. I try to tire myself out so that I could immediately go to sleep and have a dreamless sleep, but _noooo...__" _he continues.

Nico sniffs and brushes a stray tear with his sleeve.

"When I heard that you guys have returned, I was overjoyed. I ran to the Big House and called for you, but you weren't there. Percy said to me that you died. He even gave me this-" Nico sticks his hand in his pocket to reveal a statuette of a god, Hades, "-thinking that it would make me feel better. He told me that you died because of this. I was angry! I hated Percy! I hated him because he went with the quest. I hated that he failed to keep you alive! I hated that, even how badly I treat him, he was nice to me and treated me like a normal human being"

"Nico, please. Don't blame Percy."

"I'm not blaming him, or Annabeth, or Grover, or anybody! I blamed myself! I lived with the guilt in me. I thought taking it out on somebody else would help, but it became worse."

"Nico, you were overwhelmed. You were forced by life to quickly grow up. You never had the childhood" Bianca mutters.

Nico was silent for a moment, then he clenched his fists.

"I don't have anybody to blame for the current situation, but I have found someone to blame why I never knew what a pure, innocent life is..." he says

"Who?"

He looks up, "You!"

"Nico-"

"Because of your death, I had to learn how to take care of myself all in my own. Being the son of Hades was never a problem to me! But I was alone! A ten-year-old kid wandering the streets!"

"I never meant to-"

"To what? To leave me for the Hunters? To leave me in the hands of a camp? to have a big responsibility of taking care of me? to let me deal with the world alone without your help? To abandon me when you were the only person in this world who I trusted? who I loved? You abandoned me, Bianca!"

"Nico, don't say that. I love you. I never meant to abandon you. I know I was going to die someday, but-"

"But what? you never expected the camp to shun me away? you didn't know I was forced to live this kind of life? Do you even know what Persephone does to me! I never had anybody to look up to, except you. and when I found out you died, I collapsed. I didn't know what to do anymore!"

"..."

Nico looks at his sister, his eyes bloodshot.

"I never did know, Bianca. I never knew what it feels like to live. Because. Of. You" he says.

Bianca looks down, and tears drip to her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Nico..."

"NO! I don't want pity! Just...UGH!" Nico pulls out his sword and plunges it to the ground. Half of the blade sank into the ground.

"Nico..."

"JUST GO AWAY! even if you have lived, you would be with the Hunters! We would never be together! NEVER!" he cries, and wipes his face, the blood from the meat marking his pale face.

"I love you..." Bianca says, then fades away.

Nico sits there, crying his heart out. He never knew what it felt to be vulnerable. He was forced to toughen up and face the world alone.

He stands up and hastily wipes his face with his jacket, leaving bloodstains on it.

"I'll wash this later" he mutters, his voice heavy, and takes his sword

Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank and Leo all stared at the young boy who was forced to grow up.

"Let's go back to the ship" Piper says, "He needs some time alone"

The other nodded and quietly return to Argo II.

**A/N: So, yeah. That's it.**

**Bianca was, as stated in the Son of Neptune, reborn because she is trying for the Isles of the Blest. I just thought that, what if she never chose to reborn?**

**Reviews are helpful. Don't be scared to randomly comment about the one-shot.**


End file.
